Tigers Face No. 10 Hornets in Emporia on Saturday

FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

Fort Hays State enters a key two-game stretch this Saturday (Oct. 29) when it faces No. 10 ranked Emporia State in Emporia. Game time is set for 2 pm at Welch Stadium. The Tigers enter at 6-2, while the Hornets are 7-1.

The Tigers are receiving votes in the latest national rankings produced by the AFCA. Both FHSU and ESU are in the top 25 of the D2Football.com poll, FHSU at No. 24 and ESU at No. 6. Emporia State’s only loss this year was to the nation’s No. 1 ranked team, Northwest Missouri State.

The game Saturday starts a two-game stretch that could weigh heavily on Fort Hays State’s postseason chances. The latter half of the stretch includes a meeting with No. 1 ranked Northwest Missouri State in Hays on November 5. Fort Hays State has won the last two meetings with Emporia State by three points each. The Hornets were ranked No. 13 in the nation last year when the Tigers knocked them off in Hays. Fort Hays State was not inside the top 10 of the first set of region rankings released by the NCAA, so it will have to pick up some big wins to get the attention of the regional committee.

Emporia State is alone in second place in the MIAA standings, while FHSU is tied for third with Central Missouri. A win for the Tigers Saturday would pull them into a tie for second place.

The Tigers have seen their passing game thrive the past three weeks. Jacob Mezera has thrown for over 300 yards in all three games during the stretch, including a season-high 446 at Pittsburg State. Charles Tigner leads the team in receiving yards with 419, while Tyler Bacon has the most catches with 34.

Running back Shaquille Cooper has provided both a rushing and receiving threat throughout the year. Cooper has 564 rushing yards and 325 receiving yards. Last week, he produced the 10th 100-yard rushing game of his career at FHSU, the fourth player in program history to accomplish the feat.

On the defensive side, Alex Schmidtberger is coming off a career-high 21 tackles in the win over Missouri Western. With the effort, he moved over 300 tackles in his career at FHSU, just the fourth player in the program’s NCAA Division II era to reach the milestone. He now has 305 in his career. He also shot up the NCAA leaderboard in tackles, now fifth in the nation in tackles per game (11.9) with a total of 95 for the season.

Sie Doe, Jr. continues to impress up front by leading the MIAA in both sacks (12) and tackles for loss (13.5). He ranks fourth nationally in sacks per game. He is second nationally in forced fumbles per game, currently with four on the season. With two sacks last week against Missouri Western, Doe is now tied for the single season record for sacks at FHSU with 12, matching Trevell Smittick’s mark from 1998. He is only three sacks shy of Smittick’s career sacks record at FHSU of 21.5.

In the secondary, cornerbacks Raheeme Dumas and Rashad Dunnigan lead the team in interceptions with three each. DeAndre James and Tanner Hoekman each have two.

This game matches two of the best turnover margin teams in the nation. Emporia State ranks second in the nation in turnover margin at +14 for the season, while FHSU is 10th in the nation at +8.